Quick Facts
Biography
Melissa Raju Thomas is an Indian actress, screenwriter and model. She made her feature film debut in Geetu Mohandas' bilingual film Moothon (2019).
Early life and education
Melissa was born in Deolali, Maharashtra, India and lived across the country during her childhood. In 2009, she was awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Education, Singapore to study towards her GCE A Levels at the Meridian Junior College, Singapore where she was a member of the Students' Council and was also the valedictorian in 2011. She then completed her undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore and earned her Bachelors of Business Administration degree. An accomplished scholar, she was part of the Dean's Honour Roll in Academic Year 2011-12 as well as Academic Year 2012-13.
Career
As a 13 year old, Melissa was a popular VJ of the Malayalam show Valkannadi after winning a talent hunt competition.'
In 2012, Melissa was crowned the winner of the Navy Queen 2012 beauty pageant. After winning the pageant, she decided to finish her studies first, so she went back to Singapore for University. From 2016-2018, Melissa starred in various print and television advertisements. In January 2019, Melissa wrote and starred in the well-received short film Faded.
In 2019, she made her feature film debut in Geetu Mohandas' bilingual film Moothon (2019), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019 internationally and at the Mumbai Film Festival 2019 in India. She played the challenging role of the character Amina, a village girl from Lakshadweep who reaches Mumbai and undergoes transformation.
In 2019, she was also cast for an interesting special appearance role in Bejoy Nambiar’s film TAISH, which she is currently filming for. This would be her first in Bollywood. She has also mentioned that she is currently writing and working on new scripts.